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UFO (Series 3)
UFO was a competitor robot that attempted to enter Series 3-5 of Robot Wars. It failed to qualify for the main competition of each but was selected for the Series 3 Super Heavyweight Championship before it was cancelled. Team MadScientists would later appear on Robot Wars, albeit exclusively in the Antweight Championships. They would enter Legion, an antweight Clusterbot for the Extreme 1 Antweight Championship. They later entered the Extreme 2 Antweight Championship with two robots; Buzzant and Mesmer 2. Design UFO was a white and brown rectangular-shaped invertible robot. It was armoured in 6mm of Lexan, although this could be increased to 10mm in certain areas. The main weaponry consisted of a 0.51m long u-shaped wedge constructed from three pieces of stainless steel. It was articulated, remaining effective even when UFO was inverted. The design also enabled UFO’s wheels to be placed in the centre of the robot, enhancing the robot’s traction. UFO was also equipped with a 0.58m axe driven by a pneumatic ram that pushes a lever. It had an impact pressure of 7.9 tonnes per square centimetre which could penetrate through 4mm of stainless steel.UFO website on UFO's specifications However, its speed controllers were homemade, as the team could not afford a Vantec or 4QD.UFO website on UFO's speed controllers These proved unreliable, costing UFO during its attempts to qualify for Series 3 and 4. With plans to qualify for Series 5, Team MadScientists built UFO 2, a dome-shaped machine. UFO 2 was the name given to the drive pod, weighing around 15kg. The Claw was the codename for the primary weapons pod, containing a large crushing claw driven by a 200mm bore pneumatic ram at 150psi, giving the crusher a compressive force of 1.5 tonnes. The Claw’s shell was equipped with a self-righting mechanism, where the crusher would right the robot when opened. Qualification UFO first attempted to qualify for Series 3. During its weigh-in, it was discovered that not only was UFO 11kg over the 80kg weight limit, it also had armour that did not fit the chassis. Furthermore, technical issues with its speed controller prevented it from starting a test run. Nonetheless, although a technical check showed that UFO’s weapon was also non-functional, Team Mad Scientists did receive praise from the production team for their engineering and efforts.Chris Aylott's Tinweb post on UFO's Series 3 audition Team MadScientists managed to reduce UFO’s weight by at least 5kg after the audition. However, they were informed by the production team that UFO would not be selected for the main competition but was invited to compete in the Super Heavyweight Championship. Although unhappy with the decision, Chris Aylott did express plans to increase UFO’s weight to compete with other superheavyweight competitors.Chris Aylott's Tinweb post on UFO being placed in the Series 3 Super Heavyweight Championship Ultimately, the Super Heavyweight Championship was cancelled because of a behind-the-scenes accident in The Pits, thus preventing UFO from appearing in The Third Wars. UFO then attempted to qualify for Series 4. However, the machine originally failed its failsafe test after its field-effect transistor (FET) failed to function. Upon swapping it for a programmable intelligent computer (PIC), UFO successfully passed the failsafe test on the second attempt. It was then placed in a qualifying battle against Banana-R Armour. But upon the recommendation of Mike Franklin, Team MadScientists conducted a range check, which revealed problems with UFO’s failsafe and PIC. This caused UFO to drop out of the qualifying battle queue, where it was then checked by producer Bill Hobbins in the test arena. After exhibiting the same issues that plagued UFO in the original range check, Hobbins informed Team MadScientists that although UFO was well-built, safety issues meant that UFO would not be allowed to compete, thus meaning it failed to qualify for The Fourth Wars.UFO website on UFO's failure to qualify for Series 4 Team MadScientists had plans to enter UFO 2 for Series 5. However, it is unknown whether the robot officially entered qualification for The Fifth Wars, and if so, how it failed to qualify. Series Record Outside Robot Wars Team MadScientists also attempted to enter Techno Games 2001 with Lego Technic Walker, a walker robot. It utilised a cam-and-rocker system to walk; the team estimated that had Lego Technic Walker completed the 10m race, it would have posted a time of just over four minutes. References External Links *UFO website (archived) Category:Robots from South Yorkshire Category:Invertible Robots Category:Super Heavyweights Category:Robots whose events were cancelled Category:Robots which failed to qualify for any main series Category:Robots with Ramming Blades